She's the secret master of sound

Sep. 7, 2013

Chelsea VandeDrink, recording, mastering and production engineer for Cincinnati Public Radio, in the recording booth at Music Hall getting ready for the opera 'Aida' on July 26. / The Enquirer/Adam Birkan

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You’ve probably never seen Chelsea VandeDrink, but you’ve likely heard her work – on WGUC (90.9 FM) broadcasts, on Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra albums and on iTunes.

On many nights, VandeDrink – the recording, mastering and production engineer for Cincinnati Public Radio – is hidden in a sound booth, which she calls her “nest,” high above Music Hall’s stage. Other times, she might be tucked into a corner of a church, hunched over a monitor and listening through earbuds.

She records Cincinnati’s biggest musical groups in Music Hall for broadcast (the Cincinnati Symphony, Cincinnati Opera and May Festival) and many others beyond (Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, Vocal Arts Ensemble, concert:nova, the Linton Series and Catacoustic Consort, to name a few).

In July, she oversaw a last-minute live simulcast of the sold-out finals of the World Piano Competition. And she’s the official recording engineer for the CSO’s new label, Fanfare Cincinnati.

“You do it because you love it,” said VandeDrink, as she moved between opera recording sessions at Music Hall and the School for Creative and Performing Arts. “It’s really a lot of work, and you’re asked to go over things – over and over and over again. But we know where the end result is going. It’s going to be a great product. It’s that kind of mentality of being a perfectionist. It’s never finished.”

When she came to WGUC seven years ago, VandeDrink, 29, was the youngest person in the industry to be charged with weekly recordings of a professional orchestra. She is still one of the few women.

Born in Denver, she came to work at Cincinnati Public Radio in 2006 from St. Louis, where she recorded the St. Louis Symphony and had her own production company, Ritme Recording. She studied audio engineering in one of the few programs in the country at Webster University in St. Louis.

VandeDrink never planned to be a recording engineer. She was a talented pianist and cellist who played in competitions, and as a teen once sat side-by-side with CSO principal cellist Ilya Finkelshteyn, then with the St. Louis Symphony. She tried a music therapy program in college, but it didn’t resonate.

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Ultimately, she was inspired by the “roadies” she would see at the pop-punk concerts she loved to attend.

“I was like, that’s what I want to do for the rest of my life. It probably petrified my parents,” she said.

One of her strong points in winning the job in Cincinnati was her music-reading ability. She is able to follow intricate orchestral scores, from Beethoven’s Ninth for the CSO’s “One City, One Symphony” project to Lutoslawski.

“I can read scores well, pick out instruments, such as a flute, and therefore my edits are very smooth,” she said.

Her biggest thrill has been recording the Cincinnati Symphony’s Philip Glass album on Glass’ label, Orange Mountain Records. The live recording features cellist Matt Haimovitz in the world premiere of Glass’ Cello Concerto No. 2, “Naqoyqatsi.”

“Getting to do the Philip Glass project was huge for me. I had this audio god sitting behind me, (producer/recording engineer) Michael Riesman,” she said. “He’s Philip Glass’ right-hand man, a huge name in the industry and a game-changer. Working with someone who’s that influential in the recording industry was an incredible experience and really scary.”

The album was in the top six on iTunes for two weeks. She is still proud to have played a role.

“That’s our symphony, tied with (an album by violinist) Joshua Bell and the Metropolitan Opera on iTunes. How are you not incredibly proud of that?” she said.

She loves her “nest,” which she considers “the best seat in the house, in my opinion.”

VandeDrink had never sat out front with the audience – until last July, for Cincinnati Opera’s “Aida.”

“Usually I only get to see it on the monitor,” she said. “The first act, I thought, they’re really killing it tonight. I should go up and press record!”

Meet Chelsea VandeDrink

Native of: Denver

Lives in: East Walnut Hills

Why she does it: “Because I want everything to sound great, and I want to give people what they feel like is a good representation of who they are as a musician. And that’s a huge task.”

Current project: She recorded the LumenoCity concert in Washington Park in early August. She’ll be back in Music Hall’s recording booth for the entire Cincinnati Symphony season, starting with the “Chopin and the Warriors” concerts this week.

In her free time: “I used to bike, and then I got pregnant and started a family. Now, my favorite thing to do outside of work is being a doula, assisting moms with natural birth, just so they can have the experience.”